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BAGHDAD — Iraq’s top Shiite cleric urged the country’s divided political factions yesterday to
select a new prime minister by early next week, in a public call for a political solution that
increases pressure on embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Speaking from the holy city of Karbala, Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, a cleric representing Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, called on Iraq’s political blocs to select a new leader
before the recently elected parliament sits on Monday.

Delivering the message from the grand ayatollah, he also urged the factions to select a
parliamentary speaker and a president, and for the country to remain whole.

“Iraqis have passed bigger crises than this in the past history,” he said. “We must not think of
dividing Iraq as part of a solution for the current crises, the solution must protect the unity of
Iraq and the rights of all its sects.”

The grand ayatollah’s message came as the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani,
challenged both the central government’s authority and the cleric’s wishes.

On a tour of Kirkuk, the long-contested and oil-rich northern city that Kurds claim as their
own, Barzani said on Thursday that the city would remain in Kurdish hands. He repeated his position
yesterday.

The challenges to al-Maliki, a Shiite, underscored the intractable nature of Iraq’s political
problems even as fighting rages in many areas of the country and large swaths of territory are out
of government control.

No obvious or broadly supported successor to al-Maliki has emerged, making it uncertain how
political blocs might select a new prime minister by the grand ayatollah’s suggested deadline.

Al-Maliki, for his part, did not address the grand ayatollah’s message. In a taped speech
broadcast yesterday afternoon, he assured viewers that parliament would meet on Monday and that
Iraq’s security forces were guarding the capital. It was unclear when his address had been
taped.